Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-01-28
good deal of trouble for nothing, but the

the second watch. Keep your eye on
that junk, and permit no boat to come
aboard under any circumstances.
l distributed my men over the vessel to
the best advantage and reserved to N.Y.
self the right to act as free lance That
is, went from one part of the vessel to
another, and kept one eye on the junk
and the other on the beach. All was very
quiet up to 1880 o'clock, when l made
two discoveries in quick succession. The
cook had prepared a large dish of coffee
for our use during the night. We had a
large urn on stand in one corner of the
dining room, and lamp underneath
kept the coffee hot. The same thing is in
general use in American hotels and res
taurants. l was on the point Of entering
the cabin to secure a drink of the bever-
erage when, as passed an open window,
l heard the cover of the urn rattle, and
then caught the footsteps of some one in
retreat 1t could be none other than the
native cook, l argued, but did not go to
his quarters to verify or disprove my sus-
picions. | entered the cabin, turned up
the light and carefully examined the urn.
The rascal had certainly CLOSED" it.
There was a grayish powder on the cover
and on the edge of the urn, and in his
haste he had spilled some on the floor. A
look inside showed numerous bubbles on
the surface of the liquid. but these broke
and disappeared while l was looking The
rascal could have but one object in his ac-
tons. | arranged the can so that no one
could secure drink and then started to
notify the captain. As | passed along
the deck l looked for the junk, and in an
instant saw that she had decreased the
distance between us. The tide was
setting in, and she was either dragging
her anchor or had purposely raised it and
allowed herself to drift. The captain was
up as soon as l touched his arm, and
when | reported my suspicious of the
cook and the junk he replied:
"Call all the men at once, but make no
noise. That junk has got fifty men in
her hold, and the natives on shore are in
with a plot to capture us. Take pair of
handouts and have the cook secured in
his berth.
After | had called the men l went to
make prisoner of the cook, but he was
nowhere to be found. His object in re-
manning aboard up to that hour was to
drug our coffee and note what prepare
tons we We're making. When he got
ready to go he probably swan to the shore
with his news, but he could have reported
little more than the fact that he had
drugged our coffee, which all who were
awake at midnight would probably make
use of. When the men had received our
orders we paid our attention to the junk
and one of the guns was quietly rolled
across the deck and trained upon her
When the night glass was directed to the
shore we could make out that many of
the natives We're moving about and evil
IDENTIFY getting ready for some expedition.
There was no question now but what we
were to he attacked. We had a good
pressure of steam, plenty of hot water,
and the hose was attached and man as
signed to take charge of it.
1t was an hour and half after mid
night before there was any decided move
on the part of the enemy. The captain
of the junk could not have had a night
glass. and perhaps he reasoned that we
were as badly off. He kept paying out
his cable foot by foot until he was so close
on to us that l could have tossed biscuit
aboard of him. Owing to the set of the
tide or to some cross current he dropped
down to us stern first, while we lay broad
side to the beach, The stern of the Junk
was pointed amidships of the steamer,
and our gun would rake his whole deck
at every discharge. At | O'Clock two
men left her in a small boat and went
ashore, and then forty or fifty armed men
came out of the hold and took their sta
tons on deck. A few had muskets, but
most of them carried knives or a sort of
hand grenade. which has been termed
''stink pot. These bombs are filled with
a villainous compound which is let loose
as they are broken. and the fumes are
more to be dreaded than a bullet Their
plan. as we solved it, was for an attack
on both sides of us at once. A fleet
would come out on us from the shore and
the junk would drift down on us at the
same time. We had the cable ready to
slip, sent the engineer to his post and then
waited.
AT about l.; 80. while the tide had vet
half an hour to run, we saw the shore
boats make ready. At least 200 natives
were ready to come off. They knew that
the cook had drugged or poisoned our
coffee, and therefore sent boat in adj
vance of the fleet to see in what shape we
We're. The boat came up very softly and
rowed twice around us before the captain
hailed and let them know we were wide
awake. Some sort of signal was given
from the boat, and the fight opened at
once. Just the moment we saw the peo-
pie on the junk getting ready to drift her
down upon us we gave them the grape
from the siX-pounder. They were not a
pistol shot away, with most of the men
crowded aft, and | verify believe that the
one discharge killed or wounded twenty
men. was at that gun with two others,
and a man armed with a carbine was
near us. He fired six or seven shots
while we We're reloading, and three or
four musket shots were fired at us. Our
second shot drove all who were left alive
below hatches and, believing that the
carbineer could keep them there we ran
the gun to the starboard side to beat off
the boats.
1t was high time. While the first